It took us three hours to get to Kusunga. Which is the closest town with internet, and supermarkets. We got stuck in mud, and the guys had to push the huge flatbed truck through it so that we could get here. Rain season has just begun here, and mode of transport is that much more challenging. I have never been more grateful for internet than today!
So here are some snapshots and brief explanations of my week in the bush/plains of Dzuwa Africa.
Our teams got woken up around 7 am and rushed to go prepare PALA for the children at the school. Joy To The World Ministries (our contact for the month). Has a self sustaining feeding program for the children. JTW provides the pots and seeds for planting corn, and the village women cook for the children and farm the land. Only the women were out planting that mornin, and we had to cook the pala. It seems like a piece of cake here, but that smoke is HORRID! I felt like my eyes were going to bulge out. We all had to stir in shifts, it was pretty intense. It gave me just a little taste of what the women do EVERY day… It is said that being in one of the cooking huts for a morning is like smoking 5 packs of cigarettes. Good thing ours was ventilated, so I only smoked about 3 packs.
We have no running water.. So we go get water from a well. We have pumped A LOT of water. And I’m still getting the hang of carrying it on my head! (Sorry it’s sideways, I don’t have the time really to adjust it). Good workout for your neck too =)
Yup.. that’s a storm brewing behind us. We were on a race against time to get to our ministry site quicker than the storm. We ended up putting a tarp over our heads, and braved the rain for about half an hour. Better half an hour than 3 hours of rain!
Look closely….. do you see him/her? This is Chamillionaire the camellian (or however it’s spelled). Some of the team found him on their journey to go plant one day. He/she was our greatest form of entertainment, and our pet for a couple hours. We tried to get him/her to change all colors, but we only got him/her to change polkadot brown and bright green. Who need t.v, when you have a camellian…
The African sky is breathtaking, and I feel like if I was a
foot higher I could reach up and grab the fluffy clouds in the daytime, or the
twinkling stars at night.
We are people watched by about 20-30 Malawian children
every day. They look through our house windows and sit by us when we are
outside. The guys have started a hilarious game of Catch the Child. And the
kids love it. I love watching the guys zip through the bushes and the kids run
wildly and laughing…their little feet pounding the pavement.
When we first arrived at the house were staying at.. it was dark, cold, and bugs
were running the place. It was a very HORRIBLE first impression. So the
next morning we decided to make it more like home and decorate for
CHRISTMAS! We “built a fire”, “hung” stockings, and “created”
snowflakes. This is The A Team Remix’s Christmas picture. From our family in Dzuwa, to yours. <3
Agenda: Love,
Bethsaida
P.S… 4 of my 7 teammates still need to be fully funded by the end of the month. Please please please consider and pray about funding them. We need only about $4,000 as a team. Every little bit helps. Their lwebsite links are to the left of this page. Cinthia and Jon Bunford, Amanda Burkett, and James Woodley. They are amazing people, and would be so blessed by your financial support. Thank you for all your prayers for me and my team <33
